In one corner of Lorence's and his men's camp, a soldier named Randolf was sitting beside a small camp fire, attending to his routine guard duties. He was fiddling his longsword while muttering something under his breath. In reality, he was quite pissed. He was cursing to himself that on the day where everyone should be celebrating because of a bountiful harvest, it coincided with the time where he would be acting as the sentry for the night.

This lead to him drinking a little bit, but only enough to make him tipsy and not drunk. 'But I wanted to be fuckin' drunk', Randolf thought with a grunt. Like many other soldiers, he was also promised by Lorence about a promotion once they got to their destination. A permanent occupation was still better than nothing. Randolf was an orphan, he didn't have a family to support nor a home to go back to. Of course, this came with him being homeless and being used to a rough life of stealing, and sometimes even killing.

Just hours ago, he himself killed two slaves and took their baskets. At first he wanted to gather materials personally, but after minutes of "gathering" he finally gave up and decided to steal from others instead. Taking materials from the slaves can be compared to taking a candy from a baby. With a little amount of work, he was promoted just like that.

Randolf put down his sword to the side as he felt nature's call. He ran to a shrubbery, which was nearby the border of the Evening Forest. He was rough for sure, but he tried his best to not be filthy. For that reason he found a suitable place to take care of business.

Mingled with the shrieking of bats, and occasional low roaring of different animals deep in the forest, one could hear the sound of liquid dripping to the ground. Randolf zipped his pants in satisfaction, and started to head back towards his post when he suddenly heard some rustling in the nearby forest.

Randolf was perplexed. It was still midnight so it would be strange if the monsters were awake. He thought of the people that have yet to return from their gathering, dismissing it as someone who just lost their way and now finding themselves back to their camp. After all, some soldiers who went out gathering have yet to return. As such, he stood by near the border of the forest to welcome back any of those who would return. He saw a human silhouette, and shouted..

"Oi, what you took you so lon-" Randolf's sentence was cut-off as he felt his world spinning.

He wasn't aware that those were the last words he was ever going to utter in his life. Randolf was just about to lose consciousness for eternity when he saw a figure staring at him covered in dirt and blood-stained clothing. He had a strange crimson-red left eye that looked as if they were burning, along with jet-black wriggling slits for pupils that closely resembled a reptile..

Thud! Randolf's head finally hit the ground.

Back in the camp, nobody was aware of Randolf's demise. Nor about the figure that walked up to Randolf's post and unsheathed his longsword. The figure walked unhindered in the camp, there wasn't anyone else awake except for the other sentries on different areas. As such, the figure headed to one particular tent in the corner of the camp.

This ragged and battered figure was of course, Arterion. But he looked a little strange, for the fact that although his crimson eye was clear and bright, the rest of his facial expression looked to be fast asleep. His right eye was still the color of light purple, which was his original eye color, but the said eye was drooping as if it belonged to an unconscious person. It made his present look quite bizzare.

Nevertheless, Arterion reached his destination. If one was a slave and helped out with assembling the tents, they would know that this particular tent housed a bald, long-bearded soldier along with three other soldiers. Arterion entered the tent and there he saw four grown men, lost in their dreams.

Shwick! Shuck! Shwoo!

He swiftly slit off the throats of the other three soldiers that were sleeping, not even giving them a chance to scream and plead. Arterion acted on instinct, and he knew what kind of people these soldiers was. Blood was splurting all over their necks which awoke them as they desperately tried to stop the bleeding. But it was too late, all they could do was struggle in despair as they looked at Arterion with regret and disbelief.

Drops of cold blood splattered on the face of the bald soldier which woke him up. But what he saw made him to not want to awaken ever again. All of his comrades were lifeless with their necks forming a pool of blood in their tent. There was so much blood that one would think someone doused a bucket of water inside the tent. He looked at the solitary figure standing in front of him.

It was quite dark inside, but he could clearly see the fiery red glow of Arterion's reptilian eyes. When he looked into those eyes, he felt as if he was plunged into the deepest layer of the Hells but at the same time, felt the glorious radiance of Heaven. It made him enter a daze which he quickly recovered from as he felt the cold blood seeping into his matress. He gained back his senses as he took his sword and shouted.

"You fucking-- urgh.. uh" the bald soldier's shouting was interrupted as the cold blade of a longsword was thrust into his throat. He couldn't do anything but freeze at where he was as he gurgled a huge amount of blood.

"Oi.. oi.., what.. d'ya.. have.. here.. young.. man..?" Arterion's cryptic voice echoed out. His voice sounded like it came from a person's rambling when they were dreaming, which could only further one's suspicion that he was asleep.

The bald soldier's eyes were filled with anger and fury as he realized who this person was, but more than that it was filled with regret. He started regretting ever thinking about taking this guy's life. He already had the mushroom, all he would have to do was walk away, but Fate has it's own plan. All he gave returned to him tenfold. His eyes lost all traces of life as his large limp corpse fell to the floor with a thud.

Arterion flicked the longsword to rid of the coagulating blood and sticky fat on the blade. He walked out of the tent as if nothing happened and continued walking aimlessly in one direction. He didn't care when another sentry happened to saw him walk out of the bald soldier's tent with a bloodied sword. This prompted the sentry to check the inside of the tent and what he saw shocked him. He shouted at the top of his lungs..

"INTRUDER! INTRUDER! FINN AND HIS GUYS WERE KILLED! ALL OF YOU BASTARDS WAKE UP!" the sentry shouted with all his might. He procedeed to take cooking pans from a nearby campfire and hit it with the scabbard of his sword, producing a grating metallic sound around camp.

Arterion stood where he was, watching as the sentry alerted the whole camp. The rest of the soldiers rushed out of their tents like an unorganized mass of meat as they panicked to reach for their equipments. It was evident that they were influenced by alcohol as a lot of them staggered towards their belongings.

Lorence finally found himself to get some sleep when it was cut-short by the metallic ringing in the distance. He grunted and got out of his bed as he took his enchanted sword, not even bothering to don his light armour. He exited his tent to see all of the soldiers in their casual wear with weapons drawn as they surrounded one ragged looking person.

"What's this commotion all about!" Lorence shouted with an irritated tone. He couldn't contain his excitement to go back home for the whole night so he struggled to fall asleep. But just as he was about to, he was interrupted by this absurd event. All because of a beggar looking person alerted the whole camp with his presence. Lorence clicked his tongue as he made his way to the front of the crude formation.

"S-sir Lorence.. He seemed to have killed Finn and his guys. I saw him leaving their tent with a bloody sword, and when I checked inside, everybody in there had their throats cut!" the sentry detailed the events that lead to this commotion to Lorence. He was having cold-sweat all over his body as he can't fathom how a rough looking beggar managed to avoid the detection of experienced sell-swords like them. The cuts on Finn and his men were neatly executed as well, meaning that whoever this person was, he knew how to use a sword.

Lorence frowned when he heard the sentry's accounts. He said with an icy-tone, "A fucking beggar really messed with my belongings, eh? When did I ever look so soft?! There's a whole lot of you here! Take this guy alive and I'll skin him publicly!"

Arterion who remained still and unmoving didn't react to Lorence's threat. He watched as three soldiers broke away from the formation and slashed their weapons at him at the same time. Suddenly, he felt his body exploding with intense heat! His reflexes sharpened as he quickly dodged two of the three strikes while he caught the third one with his left hand!

Hack!

Blood splurted out from Arterion's hand but that was it. The soldier who had his sword gripped by Arterion stared with wide eyes. His sword should have decapitated Arterion's hand! 'This guy's skin is so tough!' the soldier thought, and it was the last thought he would ever have in his life as Arterion swung his longsword towards the soldier's neck, lopping off his head which flew a few meters away.

Thud!

This took a lot of time to describe, but all of it happened within seconds. The rest of the soldiers were shocked and Lorence's eyes flickered as he unconsciously put his hand on the grip of his sword. The other two soldiers followed up with their own attacks, but Arterion moved with not a single action wasted. He countered the sword slashes, and took a step-back to perform a wide sweeping horizontal slash that cut the soldiers in two pieces!

Shwoo!

The corpses of the soldiers lay flat on the grassy ground of the camp. Their intestines and all sorts of guts were strewn all over to ground for everyone to see. Everybody was silent, looking at Arterion like he was some sort of monstrous beast. They had never seen someone cut two people in half so quickly. It was only now they noticed, that coupled with the eerie darkness of the midnight sky, Arterion's blazing red left eye looked especially demonic.

"Monster!", "Who's this guy?!", "A demon! H-He's a demon!"

All sorts of hysteric cries rang out from the soldiers' mouths. Arterion was just too strong to be a human. Unless he was high level Warrior or a high ranked Adventurer, there was just no way for him to be this strong! He looked like a beggar as well, but what type of high ranked Warriors and Adventurers actually dress like a beggar? Some of them are even richer than most nobles of the Free Kingdoms!

Lorence eyes turned into thin slits as he too wondered about just who Arterion was. He finally unsheathed his sword which prompted all of the soldiers to shut up. Lomf, who was sweating on the sidelines also readied his short staff, and assumed a Mage's stance. He was prepared to cast spells in tandem with Lorence's attacks.

"Such skills. Who the fuck are you?" Lorence asked directly. Seeing there was no answer coming his way, he grunted and said, "I was planning on taking you alive, but everything you've done after I said that made me change my mind. You're fucking dying right here and right now. Lomf!"

Lomf responded to Lorence's command as he quickly started casting his strengthening buffs. After a rest from the troll's battle, he recovered most of his mana. Well, he didn't possess a huge Mana Pool to begin with, so he recovers quite fast as well. Green magical symbols came out of his staff and formed into a small circular magical formation once again.

"-[Lesser Speed]-!"

Green light illuminated Lorence's body, especially on his leg areas. This was the offensive buff type spell [Lesser Speed]. It increases the target's mobility and movement speed by at least 5% to make attacks in different angles easier. As Lomf finished casting his first spell, he began casting once again. This time, red magical symbols formed a red magical formation around Lorence's arms. It shone with a faint glow as Lomf shouted..

"-[Lesser Strength]-!"

This spell [Lesser Strength] was also an offensive buff type spell which improves one's strength for attack damage by also at least 5%! But Lomf didn't stop there! As he began casting his third consecutive spell. This one was more familiar as greyish magical symbols assembled into the front of his staff as he pointed towards Lorence. Lorence's body was surrounded with grey light as his body turned into the color of metal once again!

"-[Metal Skin]-!"

Lomf almost crumpled to ground as he used all of his recovered mana instantly. His casting speed wasn't fast as it took him at least thirty seconds to finish casting all of his spells. But seeing Arterion not moving an inch, he was quite relaxed, and continued casting all strengthening buffs at his disposal.

In the face of the fully buffed Lorence with an enchanted sword, Arterion remained indifferent. Suddenly, crimson-black streams of magical symbols swirled around his body! Compared to Lomf's elegant and colorful magical symbols, Arterion's crimson-black mana looked distorted and sinister, making it look like the cursed mana possesed by devils from the Hells.

Lomf couldn't believe his eyes as he recognized the crimson-black magical formation formed by the grotesque magical symbols. It was something that he would recognize from even a mile away, something he was more familiar with than the back of his own hand! They were magical formations for..

[Lesser Speed], [Lesser Strength], and [Metal Skin] !!

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Lomf shouted with his remaining strength. He coughed a mouthful of blood as he exerted himself, making him tumble down on his knees. He continued coughing and vomitting some more blood as his face turned white. He stared incredulously at Arterion, wondering how the spells he'd been mastering for years was casted simultaneously. He just couldn't believe it!

Lorence heard and felt Lomf's reaction to Arterion's sudden change. But he knew there was no going back now. This will be the biggest fight of his life yet. He was determined to emerge victorious, and now his oppponent was on equal footing, it would make his win even more glorious!

Pale white light glowed from his sword as he activated it's enchantment [Sharp Edge]. He roared at the top of his lungs as he charged forward to Arterion! His movements were swift and his grip on his sword was strong. His muscles bulged as he jumped and prepared a downwards strike!

"-[Direct Slash]-!!!!"

"WAGHHHHH!! " Lorence shouted as he delivered the strongest and fastest strike he could muster for his opening. He already saw Arterion's skill when he fought three soldiers at once, there was no need for probing strikes. He would cut Arterion in half with this one extreme attack!